GASCAR News Center - 5th Edition

5th Edition

| |GASCAR NEWS CENTER

Domination By Parkle Motorsports: Truck Series

Coming off of a championship, many were looking at Parkle Motorsports as the championship favorites, and they did not disappoint. Joel Roshan claimed the truck series championship with two wins and a stupid amount of top tens, and Jamie Parkle claimed third in the points, with 2 wins also. Although not a dominating season, they definately did a lot better than the other teams, and that was in no small part due to Ei Pickett's crew chiefing and the team becoming a "dual" team. But what is a dual team?

A dual team is a team that particaptes in multiple different racing series. Ahle Racing, for example, fields cars in the GASCAR Cup Series and the GASCAR Truck Series, and occasionally the Alabackian Super Stockcar Series. Teams that focus on only one series are the most common, however, and that is for a good reason; focusing all of the organization's resources on a single series can, and usually is, a good thing.

But the truck series is an odd beast. While slightly different, trucks that race in the GASCAR Truck Series and those that race in the Skahyahnian Truck Championship are similar, which is probably why the truck series holds several races in Skahyahn. So, Parkle Motorsports decided to start fielding trucks in both the truck series and the truck championship, and had the two gleam information off of each other, which paid massive dividends in the end.

Leopold Vogel is also worth mentioning, as he claimed 5 wins but finished second in the championship points standings; he had several terrible runs and even DNF'd in several races, which just goes to show how it's not wins, but consistence that wins cups.

Disaster Strikes Kistler; Is Their Time Up?

The GASCAR fraternity was in something of a state of shock as Kistler announced in the silly season that Kurj Dalca, 2-time championship crew chief for flagship driver Stefan Amanar, was leaving the Kistler racing division entirely. The car maker announced that Dalca was leaving its GASCAR competition team at the conclusion of the 2078 season, ending a 3-year run that to date has produced 16 victories. The brand announced that "Dalca has been a great partner for many years, and he has been part of numerous memorable moments throughout these past three years".

This left reporters with their jaws on the floor. Why did Dalca, at the height of his career, coming off of a championship season, leave Kistler? Well there's more to the story than meets the eye. Anonymous sources have leaked- and Dalca has not denied- that Kistler was not respecting Dalca's decisions over the past years. The brand is in GASCAR first and foremost for marketing, and Dalca repeatedly made changes to the car's engine and appearance in order to claim victory. The problem is that an Intrepid in GASCAR and an Intrepid on the street now have nothing in common besides name. That wouldn't be bad necessarily, but the amount of beating and banging Dalca and his drivers did on the cars cost Kistler a massive amount of money- so much sometimes they were net losing money if they didn't win.

So, some say that Kistler fired Dalca, while others claim Kistler and Dalca agreed that Dalca's departure was for the best. The most reputable and trustworthy sources say that Dalca was offered a three-year contract by Kistler, but with stipulations and pay that Dalca disagreed with and after negotiations, the two couldn't come to an agreement, so Dalca left.

Prominent members of Kistler's racing division, such as the driver Dalca crew chiefed for, Stefan Amanar, and the owner of Kistler's GASCAR program Stefan Kiritescu called out Kistler and issued formal complaints within the company. Their main complaint is that the brand and the higher-ups shouldn't be trying to force their ideas into the division when people within the division, those that live and breathe stock car racing, know better generally.

But complaints can't bring Dalca back, and the racing division's morale took a big hit, and that was reflected in their performance. Not a single one of their drivers won this year, and they all failed to get a top ten points finish. Many have wondered if this divide between race team and race team owner is going to tear Kistler apart, but the team is still competitive, just not as competitive, and rumors are floating around that prominent members of the Kistler racing division are talking to other teams.

Allen Kunecki To Call it a Career
Allen Kunecki, the 2063 GASCAR champion, four-time Kastol night race winner, and 21 race winner, announced that the 2079 season would be his last full-time season. However, his team, Team AK, will continue on with Kunecki going from an owner-driver to just an owner. The team will go from a one car team to a two car team, with the 77 being renumbered to the 07, and the 77 transitioning to a car for part-time racers. So, one driver will drive the 07, and multiple drivers will drive the 77, and one of those drivers will be Kunecki. No news on who the other drivers will be, but we'll be sure to report on it as news becomes available.

This is important because Kunecki was the only Bonple driver in the cup series, and many consider Team AK as the flagship team for the Bonple Car Company. Bonple isn't "car crazy", but their huge population with money to spend and Bonple's global influence means that GASCAR wants Bonple to have some sort of presence in GASCAR. So, Team AK might be in the news more often now with this reorganization.

Another Fine Season For Katimos; Expansion To Follow?
Katimos had another fine season in 2079, with five wins (including the Baytona 500), with four of its five drivers in the top ten in points at season's end. And with such success, comes expansion.

This expansion comes in the form of business. Katimos has used its success in GASCAR to catapult the brand from an Ankriadian-only brand to selling cars worldwide. At first, this expansion started in "safe" markets, where Katimos could pretty easily set up shops and sell cars, like in Malarsia. But as the Katimos badge has seen victory worldwide, Katimos has, and is, carving its own slice of the global auto market.

What's more, Katimos is a car brand unlike any other. It is not just another multi-billion dollar company that pumps out cars, vans, and pickups. Katimos focuses on making fuel-efficient, sporty, and affordable cars; the nature of their cars means they appeal to only a select few demographics, none of which are the majority.

The average reader is probably wondering what the heck they just read, so we'll put it in laymen's terms. The prime demographic- the people that buy the most cars- are people aged 30 to 48, with extra cash to spend. They want a nice, comfortable car that drives and rides good. That is the demographic all the major auto manufacturers target; Cehve, Kistler, Ettlinger, Huick, etc.

There is another demographic out there that also buys their fair share of cars. These people are aged 18 to 28, are on a budget, but they want a fast, fuel-efficient, and "cool" car. That's the demographic Katimos targets, and the other auto manufactueres mostly ignore.

It's for that reason Katimos is expanding into the "cash cows" of the auto industry. Those "cash cows" are Anthacia, Conmerica, Calcaterra, central Stelin (Diemetsa, Bonple, and Zambet Fata), and Ulutor. Time will tell if they're able to make it in these markets, but for a brand known for success on the race track, they'll probably be known for success in the market as well.

Back To Form: Angor-Morton Motorsports
It was tough being a fan of Angor-Morton. So close their drivers had come to claiming the cup, only to fall into mediocrity and at times, disaster. Any attempt at trying to get better would be swamped by other teams. The GASCAR journalist Adrian Teven put it best; "Angor-Morton had the misfortune of being one of the best while it raced against the best".

But no more do the fans have to suffer. Angor and Morton, being bankers, are used to playing the long game, and play the long game they did. They looked abroad for new talent and hired Matthew Morgan and his mechanic team to crew chief and pit Karl Weller, and through Morgan Angor-Morton was introduced to the wide world of racing. Morgan brought in some talent from overseas, like Mike Parson from Skayhan and Jackie Thomers from Alaback. Together, the team would work with Angor-Morton to build up the organization bit by bit. If you've been paying attention to Angor-Morton these past five years, you've seen this building process. Much like growing a tree, creating a championship-winning team takes a lot of time and care, and things go a lot smoother if you know what you're doing, and the team did.

On paper, the season looked like an absolute disaster for the organization; they scored one win with Weller at the Glenigrad 355, and they only had one driver in the All-Star Race. But wins can be deceiving, and wins don't win championships, consistence does, and boy did Angor-Morton have consistence. Weller scored 19 top ten finishes and Hoffenheim scored 12 top ten finishes (GASCAR runs 22 points races), and Sosco and Tjurgard scored 8 top tens between them. Denis Hittermaier scored three top ten finishes including a second place run at the Kellyorr Unity Corp 500. Suffice to say, the ball had got rolling.

Bach To Form
Alex Bach is a GASCAR superstar and was (and still is) integral in helping to popularize racing around the world, thus becoming a global cultural icon in the process. With that said, the past decade has not been kind to Bach; his last championship was in 2067, 12 years ago. He's won 17 races since then, which is more than can be said for other drivers, and only lost the 2074 championship by a single point, but still, he has been struggling.

Much of this can be attributed to the departure of his long-time crew chief Artur Denzel in 2067; Bach won all of his championships with Denzel and the two had such good compatibility that other teams can only dream of. The problem with such arrangments, however, is that they have to end eventually, and when they end they usually end in disaster. And end in disaster it did; Bach fell off significantly after Denzel left, and throughout this past decade Bach has went through six different crew chiefs, and the last one's two-year run saw Bach fail to win once and a best points finish of 9th.

Enter Kurj Dalca stage right. The two were initially skeptical of each other; Bach owns the team he drives for so he wouldn't be able to give Dalca the basically unlimited money Kistler gave him, and Bach was well aware of Dalca's habbit of beating and banging on cars would cost him. But the two hit it off in their first meeting, and Dalca signed a contract to crew chief Bach. The two participated in several testing sessions and Alabackian Super Stockcar Series races before the beginning of the season, and they seemed to be a good pairing, despite the cultural differences. But the season would show just how good of a pairing they really were.

Histoy Hub: Rickie Johnsen Becomes the first non-Ankraidian driver to win in Alaback.

Stock car racing’s “home” has always been in Ankraid, and in particular Alaback. Not until recently, with GASCAR’s success, has the world seen a global premier stock car racing league. Instead, if stock car racing fans outside of Ankaird were lucky, their nation would have its own stock car racing league, but few nations really had national stock car leagues, most only had regional ones.

One such nation that had a national stock car league was Skahyahn; Skahyahn’s “Championship Speed Contest Series”, or CSCS for short. The league was considered to be the most competitive outside of Ankraid, and so the most successful drivers in the CSCS would try and break into the Ankraidian scene, often with little success sadly. The fact was that Ankraidians lived and breathed stock car racing, like how Ulutorians live and breathe smashball, and that made trying to break into the Ankraidian scene hard for any non-Ankradians.

But to every rule, there is an exception. And our exception here is Rickie Johnsen. Johnsen won several track championships in the mid-60s before jumping up to the CSCS full-time in 1966. He went on to win the championship in CSCS in 1969, 1970, 1971, and the again in 1973. His untold domination in the CSCS led many to wonder if he’d jump ship to Ankraid. But the trip was expensive if you did not have connections in Ankraid (Johnsen didn’t), but Johnsen had been saving up money for just that trip.

He decided to compete in several summer races in the 1974 SCARL season (the top stock car series in Alaback at the time) which he though he had the best chance in. He competed in the 1974 National 300, Southwestern 400, and the Darn Good Spark Plugs 400. Sadly, not much is known about the races (these three races were minor races, and minor races did not get TV or flag-to-flag coverage until the early 1980s). The National 300 was cut short due to rain, and Johnsen finished 25th; in the Southwestern 400, Johnsen finished 14th. But he’d hit the bullseye in the Darn Good Spark Plugs 400; while not much is known about the race, we do know it had 40 lead changes (a record for the Nertoen Speedway); Johnsen led 61 laps that day, including the last eight as the leader’s clutch failed, thus winning the race.

While Johnsen would not run a full SCARL season until 1977, he would run the occasional race (sometimes for his own race team, sometimes filling in for other drivers). He’d win another race in 1975, and he’d eventually write himself into stock car history by winning eight championships in Alaback, tied with Erik Trustmanster and Ryan Vic for most of all time, and ranks in the top five for most wins in the three premier Alabackian stock car series. But those are all stories for another time.

Track Trivia

Next up on our track trivia is the fastest race track to ever be created by man; Gallediga Superspeedway. Gallediga is GASCAR's largest oval, measuring in at 2.66 miles long, and is also the steepest banked at 33° in the turns. And all of that makes Gallediga a fast, action-packed track, but first let's talk about its history.

SCARL originally wanted a track similar to Baytona; a long, high-banked and fast tri-oval. SCARL officials searched far and wide across Alaback, but ultimately decided to build their new track near the town of Saurier, in Gallediga County. Why? Because the Alabackian Air Force (AAF) had an airfield near Saurier, but after the end of WW2 the large air base was rarely used, and was costing the AAF and Saurier a lot of money to maintain. So, SCARL bought the air base on favorable terms in 1966 and began construction of their speedway that year.

Originally called Air Base International Motor Speedway, the track cost 4 million dolarks to build. First races were held in 1969, and instantly became a fan favorite. Since its opening year, Gallediga has hosted many races and has been repaved seven times; the track had two races in the SCARL league, and two races in the RallyRoad league as well. Because of the track's uniqueness, it has seen many first time winners and drama throughout its history.

Speeds at Gallediga are unmatched by any motorsport anywhere; in fact, in 1989, SCARL driver Tony Elluna posted a qualifying speed of 222.809 mph. During that same race, a car blew a tire and nearly flew into the grandstands, but was hit by another car which diverted its course away from the stands. Suffice to say, restrictor plates were added to all future races to slow the cars down. But even today, cars can reach 200 mph+ in the draft. Because of the close pack racing though, one mistake can create a junkyard of destroyed cars. Although uncommon, it's not unheard of to see 20 or more cars collected in the crashes. But the close racing and high speed mean Gallediga will be a favorite among drivers and fans alike.

Sponsor Spotlight

We put all the sponsors of races and all the primary sponsors of current GASCAR drivers into a raffle spinner, and the ball that came out said FoldingTrips! FoldingTrips is the current sponsor of the second race of the GASCAR season, the FoldingTrips 500 at Palm Mile in Alaback. FoldingTrips has sponsored races at Palm Mile for over 50 years, because Palm Mile is where the company’s headquarters is at.

FoldingTrips is a travel agency which promises to “give the same experience for half the price” (much like a folded piece of paper, hence the name, FoldingTrips). Founded in 1996, the company is one-part online and one-part physical. FoldingTrips.com is an aggregator website for airline/train tickets, event tickets, hotel room/lodging reservations, bookings, and provides information on tourist attractions in locations (like zoos, amusement parks, museums, etc.) They even allow users to make restaurant reservations, rent cars in advance, and book cruises.

FoldingTrips also has a physical element; on the website users can buy suitcases, travel packs, and various other vacation and travel related goods. Users can also join the FoldingTrips Members Club and receive a rewards card and earn rewards not just for buying and using FoldingTrip services, but also using and buying from places and companies partnered with FoldingTrips.

They also provide information and services for international travel. This includes passport, visa, and paperwork help, and they even provide information on local customs. FoldingTrips also has a vast number of tour guides/interpreters for people traveling abroad.

Suffice to say, FoldingTrips lives up to its name. As you might of guessed by how old the company is and the number of services they offer, FoldingTrips is extremely profitable, even more so in this era of looser-borders and globalization. But when GASCAR went global, oh boy, did FoldingTrips really start printing money. The company partnered with GASCAR in its early days to allow Alabackian GASCAR fans to travel to the new international races, and that is a tradition the two companies still do today. Suffice to say, as GASCAR has become more popular, so to has FoldingTrips. One could even say that as long as GASCAR is successful, FoldingTrips will be.